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Which Smart Phone?

Started by Garfield And Friends, August 09, 2010, 08:59:18 PM

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Recommend-me-do.
iPhones. Androids. Blackberrys. Oh my!

I wish to get a fancy new smart phone, with a few specific requirements. I'd like one that could be used as a text editor (or, even better, rich text/HTML editor) in a reasonable fashion for short periods of time, and with an exposed hierarchial file system that can input and output various file formats via a mini-USB port. (I want to transfer stuff back and forth between an old non-infrared laptop I have). None of this hide-it-from-the-user dumbed down stuff, ta. The more 'open' the smart phone, the better. Flash video (offline; non-streamed) playback would be great too, though that's not a deal-breaker. Offline webpage viewing would be nice too.

Obviously txting/calls/MP3 playback are a given, so... which smart phone do you recommend that might come close to this?

Zero Gravitas

I saw a friend's Nokia N900 recently and it was capable of being as far away from 'hide-it-from-the-user dumbed down stuff' as any I've seen if my few seconds failing to find /dev/audio and running python on it are any indication, it does support infra-red communication too.

Pseudopath

The Samsung Galaxy S is pretty much king of the Android phones at the moment and there are plenty of hacks floating around to give root access to the underlying filesystem and allow you to install developer tools and custom ROMs. Not sure about the offline viewing of webpages and Flash content, but as Flash support has been integrated into the Froyo firmware (which you could install yourself or wait for Samsung to release in September), I'd imagine it's possible.

Subtle Mocking

The Galaxy S is pretty good, but I'd still pitch for a Desire. Had mine for about 3 months and I swear by it, to the point that iPhones look shite in comparison.

Steven

#4
I've got a Galaxy S and sort have managed to get Flash working in the browser. But it seems a little temperamental, the video will freeze after 30 or so seconds most of the time, anybody know what's causing that?

I got it to work initially from following this guide http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-install-flash-10-1-on-android-2-1-eclair-devices/

By the way the Galaxy S comes with Swype integrated into it and I'm amazed at how easy it is to write messages now by letting your finger ice-skate around the keyboard layout, coupled with predictive text it's lightning fast.

Thanks everyone. Those are very good suggestions. The Nokia N900 looks like a tiny linux desktop that happens to be able to make a phone call. Which is right up my street! Whereas the Samsung Galaxy doesn't appear to be as open/customisable - but is better at HD flash video playback and has a proper app store (not that ARM linux repositories don't have their merits too).

Of course if I buy one of them, I'll face the familiar tech-regret of not having waited another month for the latest iteration of new versions of the hardware. C'est la vie!

Subtle Mocking

How long can you be bothered to wait? If you can hold off till Christmas you could pick up something like the HTC Evo or a better deal on an iPhone etc.

Quote from: Subtle Mocking on August 09, 2010, 10:52:40 PM
How long can you be bothered to wait? If you can hold off till Christmas you could pick up something like the HTC Evo or a better deal on an iPhone etc.

I'll probably dive in in the next month. Is the Evo worth the wait in your opinion?



One thing is for sure: I'll not be getting an iPhone. Slick when it comes to the basics and a large app store, but too much lock-in and a closed-off software experience from what I've seen. And no flash playback! Apple seem to be masters of (highly successful) brand style over substance.


chocky909

Is the Evo even coming to the UK? I think because it's a 4G phone and we don't have much of that here it's not going to be released.

Blumf

Quote from: Garfield And Friends on August 09, 2010, 08:59:18 PM
(I want to transfer stuff back and forth between an old non-infrared laptop I have)

It's all Bluetooth nowadays anyway, nobody uses IrDA any more. The USB adapters are good and cheap too.

Artemis

I'm intending on ordering my iPhone (or buying it outright if stock allows) at the end of this month. I don't want to be tied to any contract or to any network if I can help it, so an Apple Store purchase looks the best bet. I'll then sell it before the next iPhone release and get that one as well. I would have bulked at the idea of spending £500 on a phone before I spent a few months with the 3G, but to be perfectly honest, you're buying a hell of a lot more than a phone. I've been a bit lost without it.

Quote from: Blumf on August 09, 2010, 11:01:32 PM
It's all Bluetooth nowadays anyway, nobody uses IrDA any more. The USB adapters are good and cheap too.

Ah, I see! I must brush up on the current tech - I've been out of the mobile phone loop for too long.

My Nokia 3210 has served me well, but it's way behind the times and does not make my job easier - which is something a hacker-ish smart phone would help with.

Subtle Mocking

Quote from: chocky909 on August 09, 2010, 11:01:01 PM
Is the Evo even coming to the UK? I think because it's a 4G phone and we don't have much of that here it's not going to be released.

After a quick bit of research, it looks unlikely to be released over here, but it looks like we could get the Desire HD.

no_offenc

I'm waiting on a Galaxy S to replace my knackered touchscreen Nokia p.o.s. and I just know they'll deliver when nobody's bloody well in. Humph.

As a non-fan of phones in general, I was quite delighted with the N86 that I got last Chrimbo off a woman. I'd never used phone for going online and all that shit before and it's compact, weighty, got proper buttons (my fingers are fucking useless on touchpad for some reason) and the mp3 player is a very solid, if unspectacular substitute when I run down my iPod.

I'd played with my bro's iPhone and realised that it would be neat to have my mp3 player within the same device as my phone but apart from the cosmetics, I found it quite annoying to use, particularly with texts. Then a few weeks ago, I used his iPhone 4 and thought it was a big improvement, seemed a bit more flexible. Unfortunately, the 3G internet cap means he used up his quota in about ten days. Fuck that. Plus, he has to charge the battery every night! Fuck that, too.

Then, my mate showed me his HTC Desire and I turned into a device slut. Does virtually everything the iPhone does, with almost infinite customisation, right out of the box. In fact, it does so many things the iPhone doesn't, I couldn't believe more people hadn't bought one! I still can't. The HTC Desire: what I'm getting for Christmas![nb]I almost certainly won't be getting one for Christmas.[/nb]

thepuffpastryhangman

Unless he was streaming video or music, how'd he use his cap in ten days? Even 1GB caps effectively allow unlimited usage. Do the Desire tariffs offer higher caps anyway?

For dull repotition sake - let's be right if the thread's originator was gonna get an iPhone 4 he wouldn't be asking, would he? - holding and using it is interacting with a brilliantly engineered machine, the Desire feels like a tacky bit o' plastic. Also, the screen! The display!
If you want the Desire's feel and look just wrap a metre of clingfilm around the 4.

But as these factors clearly aren't deal makers this post is just another hollow ad.

mobias

Got an iphone 4 a few weeks back and I do love it. Haven't had any problem with the signal and the unsupported flash issue hasn't really bothered me either. I seem to be able to watch movies on most websites I go to including youtube. The screen is beautiful and the whole lay out is simple. I don't really know what more I could want from a phone but then again I've never really tried an Android phone and I know some people swear by them. 

Puff Dad:

In other words, the iPhone is like a overdressed nubile whore, plastered in make-up, inexperienced, useless at her job but looks the part for people who don't regularly visit knocking shops.

The HTC is for the connoisseurs, who recognise that beneath those sagging flunters, slapdash slap and yawning gape, there's a Kegel-crippling cornucopia of sensual savoir-faire waiting to be unleashed on the more discerning gentleman. She'll make you do an involuntary fist pump of gratitude that your gooch simply exists.

Not a recommendation but vague confusion about pricing.  I've just got a Galaxy S, to save money.  I had a Nokia N82 with Orange for a couple of years, £35 a month.  The contract ended in February, and about a month ago I thought I should look into options.  Initially I asked if I could downgrade to a SIM only contract, which somehow got me directly through to the "please don't leave us" department, who offered a Galaxy S with all the texts and minutes I'm likely to use, plus unlimited internet usage, for £15 a month.  Locked in for two years, but still that's only £360, which I don't quite understand.
The phone seems fine, though after an initial flurry of bell and whistle playing, I really just use it as a phone that can also check emails[nb]which I'm not altogether sure about- it removes the small pleasure of anticipation you get checking them yourself[/nb].  I got lost in Bath a couple of weeks ago and thought instead of asking someone the way I could use google maps on the phone.  Which didn't have any signal, so I asked someone.

thepuffpastryhangman

More BMW 5 series vs Citroën C6. Or a Tuscan villa vs a month at EuroDisney.

Funnily enough, having used both - and owning neither, and even with a slight Apple bias based on years of happy iPod use, I see your analogy in the exact opposite terms.

The iPhone is great, looks great, feels great, does lots of great stuff. However, the 'ugly' HTC does lots of things which the iPhone simply doesn't and does lots of similar things in a more customisable way, immediately, out of the box. This isn't my opinion. This ain't no 'Sega vs Nintendo' tribalism, bro, this is 'Neo Geo arcade cabinet vs MAME'!

Bref: it's the facile vanity of cunts like you which holds back the entire human race.

MojoJojo

Desire does everything iphone 4 does, except the App store isn't anywhere near as good, which is a pain. I think this is likely to change over the next year or so - Android is catching up market share, and Apple's strict developer lock in annoys developers - as soon as the market is big enough to make the money, more stuff will be made for Android. In the long term, the homogenous Apple market is going to fall apart (3GS users are already finding that a lot of stuff won't run well on their phones), and Android is better set up to cope with that.

IMO the Desire feels pretty good compared to an Iphone 4. The iphone 4 has boxy corners and it's "brilliant engineering" involved putting the antenna on the outside. The difference in screens is really not that big - we're way beyond the old days, and both screens have a certain wow factor. The Desire does do some things better - it's slightly larger, and being amoled has better contrast than the LED backlit iphone. But to be honest, there really isn't much difference.
Most annoying thing with the Desire's hardware engineering is the buttons at the bottom of the screen are a bit too fiddly.

Other thing for Desire - BBC iplayer support, which is super fab.

In terms of OS - like Linux, Android is very configurably, and also like Linux this means you spend a lot of time configuring it. The plus side to this is you end up with something which looks very swish - my homescreen shows me everything I could want it to know without having to press a button. Latest tweets, facebooks status updates, local weather, news stories, can all be put on the front screen - on an iphone you'll have to click through different apps to look at each of those.
Iphone has the advantage that it more less works as well as it's going to straight out of the box. At least until you get more than a few pages of apps, then you're going to have to spend time organising them.

Desire is not tied to itunes, which is a plus for anyone sane.

Artemis

Interesting link here which compares the HTC Desire, iPhone 4 and Galaxy S. One of them wins, and two of them don't.

I'll still be getting an iPhone 4 - I'm used to the iPhone and it's a really bloody great phone - that's not to say that the others aren't, I think they're probably on a similar level and there's no clear winner. We all win. Yay. It's indeed surprising that other phones that are at least as good don't sell more, though. Most people want an iPhone and probably wouldn't even seriously consider anything else. That must be very frustrating for the makers of the other phones who are releasing a product that's just as good but just lacks familiarity and that all important picture of a fruit on the back.

Quote from: The Boston Crab on August 10, 2010, 09:38:27 AM
Bref: it's the facile vanity of cunts like you which holds back the entire human race.

Quote from: Artemis on August 10, 2010, 09:48:11 AMMost people want an iPhone and probably wouldn't even seriously consider anything else.
I don't know, there must be other bloody minded, high horse "ooh, look at me being (very slightly) different!" tits like myself who refuse to get an iphone just because of its near-ubiquity.

mcbpete

Quote from: The Boston Crab on August 10, 2010, 07:18:14 AM
Then, my mate showed me his HTC Desire and I turned into a device slut. Does virtually everything the iPhone does, with almost infinite customisation, right out of the box. In fact, it does so many things the iPhone doesn't, I couldn't believe more people hadn't bought one! I still can't. The HTC Desire: what I'm getting for Christmas![nb]I almost certainly won't be getting one for Christmas.[/nb]
I've got an HTC Desire and its the most awesome phone I've ever had the opportunity to use. It's as open as anything - Hell you can even stick a version of Linux on it if you want (I, erm, don't). But yeah I really can't understand why more people don't have an HTC rather than the iPhone, it's soooooo much better. Plus you don't have to install any stupid software to get or put files on it or check music to and from it (yeah I'm looking at you iTunes, you bloated mess of an application).

And being able to play Gameboy Tetris, SNES Chrono Trigger and Megadrive Sonic II 'straight' out of the box (no jailbreaking needed here!) on the tube to work is a great thing indeed...

MojoJojo

Quote from: Artemis on August 10, 2010, 09:48:11 AM
Interesting link here which compares the HTC Desire, iPhone 4 and Galaxy S. One of them wins, and two of them don't.

There are quite a lot of comparisons about, and almost none of them agree on any particular point. Which I think does show there really isn't much difference.
But for the OP, he wants filesystem access, whcih pretty much rules out the Iphone.

(to mcbpete - you may not want to put Linux on your desire, but all Android phones are based on Linux. It's just in the background where it doesn't really matter to the end user.)

Just to say, I'm over excited because I got ODDSAC yesterday, watched it several times, the best being in bed in the dark with an empty house and the volume cranked up.

Artemis

Quote from: MojoJojo on August 10, 2010, 10:05:10 AM
But for the OP, he wants filesystem access, whcih pretty much rules out the Iphone.

That's where I differ with critics of the iPhone in this way - to me, an 'open software' phone (or however you'd describe it) is totally irrelevant to me. I don't need to be able to chop and change it, and have no desire to do so. Far more important to me is the quality of the build, the screen, the apps and so on. In those categories, I don't see the HTC Desire as much of a competitor. It's all much of a muchness though, isn't it. If you really want to be different, don't have a phone at all.

Not sure it's just about 'alt hype bros'.

Even ignoring the fiddly malarkey, you can easily set up the Android interface so it most conveniently matches what you want to do, as opposed to adapting yourself to what the phone allows you to do. Likewise, the iPhone's vast array of apps is as meaningful as the Wii's vast library of games. Most of them are 'shit for cunts', if you'll excuse the meme. The iPhone needs a craptonne of apps to do stuff the Android has built-in. It also requires you to invalidate the warranty to do some stuff you'd actually get for free elsewhere.

Just for clarity, yo.